Luka Modric Sparks Tottenham Hotspur Back to Life in Sunday's Victory

With one swift stroke of his magnificent right boot, Luka Modric eviscerated months of turmoil and turbulence that had seemed certain to end with a move from North to West London.

It was a wonder strike, and it made manager Harry Redknapp look all the wiser for his steadfast refusal to allow his priceless Croatian playmaker to leave for Chelsea this past summer.

Yet, on Sunday against Liverpool, all that was forgotten for a rollicking 90 minutes. The Tottenham Hotspur began the game with a lead foot on the gas pedal, and shook the visiting Merseysiders to their core. Any Liverpudlian hope of avenging last week's contentious 1-0 defeat away at Stoke was nipped in the bud.

Eventually, it would become 11 versus nine (Charlie Adam and Martin Skrtel were both sent off for two yellow cards) and Spurs pressed harder for a thoroughly convincing victory.

This was catharsis for such a frustrating beginning to their own season. Arsenal fans—always ready to begrudge their North London neighbors any smattering of good tidings—had to feel jealous of the eventual 4-0 result. It was the type that a struggling side always dreams for.

For Modric, the little genius who has seen his career skyrocket since arriving in London in the summer of '08, Sunday was a return to his (considerable) form.

Spreading play with aplomb, dinking the ball through and around opposing defenders with consummate ease, he looked miles ahead of his competition. Charlie Adam often looked lead-footed in comparison to the swashbuckling No. 14, and the Scot's early shower allowed him to avoid further frustration from the fleet-footed Croat.

When at their best—and they've been very good these past two seasons—Tottenham put viewers under an entranced spell with their fluid blend of football, passing it about the center of the park with a bevy of highly technical and creative-bent players.

With dynamic wingers Gareth Bale—and to a more one-dimensional (speed, speed and more speed and that's about it) extent, Aaron Lennon (on Sunday it was Nico Kranjcar deputizing for the injured Englishman opposite the left-winged Bale), and wing-backs like Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Kyle Walker who love to go forward, Harry Redknapp has created a side redolent with movement.

As Douglas Maicon discovered last season over the span of two Champions League group stage fixtures, they can be quite a handful when at their best.

Sunday they were just that. Striker Emmanuel Adebayor looks like a good pick-up, providing the aerial option Peter Crouch has in seasons past, but the Togolese is much more mobile and fluid in his movement (see that impressive first half run past 'pool defender Sebastian Coates) than the jaunty Englishman.

Scott Parker, so impressive and under appreciated in recent seasons with West Ham, has been excellent in his holding midfield role, and provides Modric—and a returned-to-fitness Rafael van der Vaart—the room to roam in the attacking third.

Sunday was a Neil Armstrong space-sized step in the right direction for the recently-embattled club. Redknapp, renowned as a fitful sleeper, may get a bit more rest tonight after seeing the sort of result that quietens critics.

Now to see whether they can enjoy some consistency.